Years ago, the investment options in the financial world were fairly limited, and the best way to save and invest your hard earned money came down to a choice between a few different types of bank account, buying property via a mortgage, or, simplest of all, stuffing all your spare money in an old suitcase under your bed!

Now though, the choices are rather more varied. You can have a savings account, Unit Trust, a Pooled Pension, Foreign Property Funds, Guaranteed Investment Bonds, a Personal Equity Plan, Stocks, the list goes on and on

It can be a full time job just keeping up with it all, getting the best AER on your ISA, checking your ICVC in the FT and making sure the funds in your GPP dont suddenly go AWOL!

Fortunately, in our creative lives, this is all much easier to manage. Put simply, if we want to be highly creative, and constantly draw from our sources of creativity, we need to invest in them wisely.

Here are some of the ways we can do this and ensure our personal Creativity Portfolio remains healthy and flourishing

Investing time Time is the one investment we simply cant afford not to take care of. If we never spend time creating, well never create anything, its as simple as that. Invest just 15 minutes each day, every day, to sit down and create, whether its writing in a journal, sketching, brainstorming, or some other creative activity and within a month youll have formed a habit that will serve your creativity more than possibly any other single thing you can do. 15 minutes is the absolute minimum, extend this to 30 or 60 to further increase the benefits.

Fresh Stimulation A creative mind is a curious mind, ever hungry for new ideas and new sources of stimulation. By feeding this hunger, we invest in our creativity by providing the core materials it needs to constantly grow and evolve in new exciting directions. Reading books, visiting new places, meeting new people, trying new activities are all great ways of doing this.

Relaxation / Contemplation We all can profit in our creative lives from having regular periods to relax and just let our mind drift freely. Whether for you this works best through meditation, yoga, tai chi, or simply lying on your back in a meadow watching nature gently pass over and around you, time off from the hectic buzz of our daily routines allows our thoughts to unwind, wander, intermingle and evolve. Often some of the greatest moments of creative inspiration hit us when were just laying back and daydreaming.

Diverse Creative Expression Writers write, Painters paint, Dancers dance. Thats just the way it is right? Wrong. To be as creative as you can be, experiment and learn to express your creativity in as many ways as possible, even if you only publish or perform publicly in one chosen medium. Try certain forms of creative expression that are naturally complementary, or mix it up completely and try Salsa Dancing, Cooking, Gospel Singing and Spontaneous Writing. All at the same time!

One final rule to remember If we invest in, stimulate and nourish our creativity, it quite literally is a bottomless well, an endless supply. Dont be afraid to keep drawing from it. The more you invest in it, in the ways outlined above and any others you want to try, the more youll get back, many many times over. So start investing today!

Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin.